Coin container

ABSTRACT

COIN CONTAINER COMPRISING AN ELONGATE BODY MEMBER OF A SUBSTANTIALLY H-SHAPED CROSS-SECTION WHEREIN A FIRST COIN ACCOMMODATING GROOVE IS PROVIDED, AS DEFINED BY A CYLINDRICAL SURFACE ENVELOPING THE COINS AT THE PERIPHERY THEREOF FOR MORE THAN HALF THE CIRCUMFERENCE THEREOF. THE COIN CONTAINERS ARE FITTABLE ON ONE ANOTHER TO FORM A PANEL DEFINED BY PLANE SURFACES WHEREIN THE COINS ACCMMODATED WITHIN THE COIN ACCOMMODATING GROOVE EXTEND INTO A SECOND CONTAINER SLOT OVERLAPPED THERETO, THIS SECOND GROOVE BEING ALSO PROVIDED IN EACH CONTAINER.

Sept 20, l971 s. LusETTl 3,606,008

COIN CONTAINER Filed Dec. s, 196s '12" 7? 20 "Z1 V2 V6 INVENTR 5586/0 L q .SETT/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,606,008 COIN CONTAINER Sergio Lusetti, Via Matilde di Canossa 17, Modena, Italy Filed Dec. 3, 1968, Ser. No. 780,740 Claims priority, applicltion Italy, Dec. 11, 1967,

Int. Cl. A45c ,1l/28; B65d 21/00 U.S. Cl. 206-.84 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a coin container.

A object of the invention is to provide a container for accommodating a predetermined amount of coins, substantially equal to one another, and such that said coins cannot freely exit from the container, but can be readilyremoved therefrom by a user.

Another object of the invention is to provide a coin container, which is particularly useful in banks, oces and shops, and can be used also as a coin dispenser, that is as a container from which the coins can be readily withdrawn.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a coin container having such a shape and regular peripheral surfaces that the containers can be stacked on and juxtaposed to one another, assuming a stable attitude and occupying such a regular and precise volume that the amount of coins collected in the container pile can be readily calculated by a rapid and simple count for the amount of containers as stacked on and juxtaposed to one another.

A further object of the invention is to provide a coin container allowing at least a partial vision of the coins collected therein, the container being of a low production cost, simple structure and light.

These and other objects of the invention are attained by a coin container comprising an elongate body member having a top side, a bottom side and two sides, where at least a first longitudinal hollow or groove is provided for accommodating coins substantially equal to one another, the coins being freely movable within said hollow or groove only longitudinally of the hollow or groove, wherein said first hollow or slot opens on the top side of said body member in an elongate aperture defined by two substantially straight edges, the spacing of which is less than the diameter of the coins available in the container, wherein means are provided for preventing the coins from exiting from the ends of said first groove and wherein the body member sides form plane bearing surfaces for the container In order that the structure and characteristics of the container be more clearly understood, some embodiments thereof will now be described, by mere way of nonrestrictive example and referring to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the container;

FIG. 2 depicts a plurality of coin containers, such as ICC that of FIG. l wherein the containers are juxtaposed to and stacked on one another in a cross-section view;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a second ernbodiment of the container, of which FIG. 4 is a plan view with some coins accommodated in the container; and

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a plurality of containers, such as that of FIG. 3, the containers being juxtaposed to and stacked on one another and containing a number of coins Reference is first made to FIGS. 1 and 2, showing a coin container, preferably obtained by plastic material moulding, such as polyethylene. The container comprises an elongate body member having parallel opposed sides and parallel opposed ends perpendicular to` said sides, with said sides and ends formed of plane surfaces and designated by numeral 1. In the body member there is provided a first upper longitudinal groove 2 for accommodating coins which are substantially identical, the length of the groove being such that a fixed and determined amount of coins can be accommodated therein, the coins being freely movable longitudinally in the groove.

On the top side of the container forming body member said groove 2 terminates upwardly in an elongate aperture defined between two straight edges 3, the spacing of which is less than the diameter of the coins stored in the container.Two end walls 4 form part of the body member and are of such an extension as to only partly cover the surface of a coin accommodated in the container and in side by side relationship thereto, as clearly shown in FIG. l, and such as to prevent the coins from exiting from the ends of groove 2. On the bottom side of the elongate body member forming the container there is provided a second longitudinal groove 5 parallel to groove 2 and terminating downwardly in an elongate aperture defined between two straight parallel edges 6, from which a plurality of feet 7 project. Through said feet 7 the container can be brought to bear on a plane surface, assuming a stable attitude which is precisely defined and with sides 1 at right angles to the bearing surface; feet 7 can be forced into recesses in the form of two elongate grooves 8 on the container edges 3.

The containers can be stacked and releasably fixed to one another by forcing the :feet 7 of one container downwardly into the grooves 8 of a container underlying thereto, the containers, thus restrained to one another, having the sides 1 thereof coplanar to one another and at right angles to the bearing surface of feet 7.

As clearly seen from FIGS. l and 2, the coins accommodated in each container, and designated by numeral 9, are clearly visible and project from groove 2, being held therein by edges 3, which leave as free and projecting from the container only a peripheral surface of each coin which is less than half the circumference of the coin, as particularly seen in FIG. 2. Groove 5 and edges 6 of each container are such that the container can be stacked on another identical container (FIG. 2), so as not to interfere with the coins accommodated in the underlying container.

A transverse wall 10 extends between the sides 1 of each container, in which wall a slot 11 (FIG. 2) is provided and interconnects the container grooves 2 and 5, this slot 11 extending for a portion of body member length.

As seen in FIG. 2, the coin container is of a cross-section substantially H-shaped. In order to introduce the coins into the container, said coins can be downward pressed within groove 2 sidewise forcing the edges 3, whereas to remove the coins from the container a finger force can be exerted on sides 1 near edges 6 so as to approach said edges 6 and move edges 3 away from one another. Thus, the coins can be readily removed from the container It is to be noted that intermediate coins can be removed by an upward thrust directed against the intermediate coins through the slot 11.

It is apparent that slot 11 could also be not provided in the container wall 10.

`Reference is now made to FIGS. 3-5, wherein a coin container is shown as preferably made of plastic material and provided by extrusion as a continuous bar, then cut to sections of a predetermined length.

Similarly as in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, this container comprises a body member laterally defined by plane sides 12, wherein provision is made for a `first slot 13 defined by a cylindrical surface and on the top side of the body member opening in an elongate aperture defined by two straight edges 14, and wherein provision is made for a second slot opening on the bottom side of the body member in an elongate aperture laterally defined by two straight parallel edges 16, in the container body there being also provided elongate lightening holes 17.

The cylindrical surface defining slot 13 is such as to envelope a coin accommodated therein by extending about it for a length larger than half the peripheral coin circumference, so that a coin arranged in slot 13 can be freely moved therein, but cannot be moved transversely thereto and caused to exit from the container.

As particularly seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, at the end of slot 13, in the elongated body member forming the container, two grooves 18 are provided and engage edges 14 and body member at slot 15, within each of the grooves a rigid Wall element, or preferably one of the coins available in the container, can be forced. In FIGS. 4 and 5, the coin as forced within groove 18 is designated by numeral 19, while the other coins accommodated in the same container are designated by numeral 20,

Obviously, by inserting a coin 19 into one of the container grooves 18, other coins can be subsequently introduced into the same container by causing them to penetrate therein from the other side or end of slot 13; therefore, the exit of these coins from the container is prevented by forcing a further coin 19 into the other groove 18 of the same container. One or more coins can be removed from the container by merely removing one of the coins 19 from a slot 18, which is aided in that at the two ends of the elongate body member forming the container two chamfers 21 are provided and extend to intercept said grooves 18 and at which a tool, such as a pencil tip, can be inserted to cause coin 19 to exit out of the corresponding groove 18; therefore, coins 20 accommodated within the container can be readily removed therefrom.

Container edges 14 and 16 are shaped so as to form guideways and dovetail ribs, respectively, so that a container can be made fast with another container by causing the edges 16 of one of such containers to longitudinally slide between the edges 14 of another container; thus, any amount of containers can be restrained to one another, between which said coins 19 and 20 are accommodated Within slots 13 and 15.

The container edges 16 define a plane bearing surface, sides 12 being perpendicular thereto.

The containers herein described are restrainable on one another to form a plane panel, within which predetermined amounts of coins are held, the type and value of such coins being readily verifiable by an external exam of said panel.

On a panel comprising a plurality of containers restrained to one another as above disclosed, a further panel can be overlapped, the containers of this further panel being arranged parallel to those of the underlying panel (FIGS. 2 and 5), or perpendicularly arranged thereto. At any rate, the panels would assume a stable attitude on a plane bearing surface, can be readily withdrawn from this bearing surface, enable a rapid calculation of the coins in the containers and the containers can be readily withdrawn and individually used for coin withdrawal.

What I claim is:

1. For use in the storage of coins, a plurality of containers each of which includes an elongated body formed with an upwardly directed coin-receiving groove the cross section of which corresponds to more than one half the circumferential length of each coin, said body being made of a springy material So that each coin can be thrust downwardly into said upper groove while the sides of the body yield, each body being also formed with a lower longitudinal groove for enclosing the upper portion of coins projecting upwardly from the upper groove of one container which is situated beneath another container, each container having a pair of opposed longitudinal upper surface regions on opposite sides of the upper groove and a pair of opposed lower surface regions on opposite sides of the lower groove, and the upper surface regions of one container with the lower surface regions of the next upper container situated on said one container having means for releasably xing the containers to each other in response to downward movement of one container into another container, each container having an intermediate longitudinal wall portion situated between the upper and lower grooves thereof, and said wall portion being formed with a longitudinal slot extending through said wall portion longitudinally thereof between the opposed ends of each container so that the grooves thereof communicate through said slot.

2. A coin container comprising an elongated body of springy material formed with an upper longitudinal groove for receiving coins which project upwardly beyond said upper groove and also formed with a lower longitudinal groove for accommodating coin portions which extend upwardly beyond a lower container when a pair of the containers are stacked one upon the other, said container having between said grooves a longitudinal wall portion formed with a longitudinal slot extending through said wall portion and providing communication between grooves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,844,248 7/ 1958 Tiberio 220-234UX 3,266,501 8/1966 k`Hankey 2.()6-0-81X 3,231,074 1/ 1966 Block 220-97X 3,391,850 7/1968 Torgerson et al. 220-97X 3,489,124 1/1970 Cannon 220-97X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,136,147 9/1962 Germany 206-08 JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner I. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 220-97R 

